I’ve been saying exactly this for a while. They are literally removing player autonomy in an attempt to force people into doing “limited time event X”. IN A FREAKING SANDBOX GAME!!!
A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves.
But why should that surprise anyone, they have already abandoned the survival aspects of the game long ago. 